Typical battery pack connection schemes provide for the simultaneous mechanical connection between the battery pack contacts (including positive and negative battery contacts and other contacts providing signals) and the corresponding mating contacts on an electronic product such as a charger or a portable radio or computer. Today, with more products using microprocessors and other sophisticated integrated circuits such as digital signaling processors and multimedia chips, a "harsh" shutdown of these circuits by the sudden disconnection of a battery pack from a product without an appropriate shutdown of such circuits could wreak more havoc than in the past. These "harsh" product shutdowns not only degrade the reliability of the products, but in many instances, settings or information that may have been existing in RAM or other volatile memory could be lost without retrieval.
Presently, battery pack to product interconnect schemes only have single stage mechanical latches that cannot prevent a "harsh" product shut down. Likewise, many battery packs may power up their interconnected product when first connected even though the battery pack may not be appropriate for the interconnected product. Thus, a battery disconnecting scheme is desired that allows for the early recognition of a battery being disconnected from a product to allow for an appropriate product shutdown. Additionally, a battery connect scheme is desired that allows for the recognition of the appropriate battery being connected to the product.